MOGWAI

Remarkably, it’s 25 years since Mogwai released their debut single Tuner/Lower. In the intervening years the band have released nine studio albums including Rock Action, Rave Tapes and Every Country’s Sun, with the more recent releases gradually climbing further and further up the UK album chart. They’ve created original soundtracks for films like Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, the documentary Atomic, as well as the Sky Original drama ZeroZeroZero. Earlier this year they returned with their hugely-anticipated tenth studio album, As the Love Continues, which maintained that upward chart projectile, claiming the band’s first number 1 in a quarter-century career.

As the Love Continues wasn’t the most straightforward album to produce. The original plan was to record it at Tarbox Road Studios in New York State with the legendary Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev producer Dave Fridmann. But, you’ve guessed it, due to the global pandemic, the band relocated to Vada studios in Worcestershire with Dave producing over Zoom, a far cry from recording at the Mogwai regular studio space, Castle Of Doom.

So what was it about Vada Studios that made it an ideal location to retreat to?

“The people that run it are really cool and it does have a really great live room,” Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai guitarist and vocalist recalls. “I think the live rooms used to be an abbey, so it’s like this slightly medieval English countryside setting. It was really good to be somewhere else.”

“Everything took real big steps from the demo point to how it ended up,” he adds. “The isolation aspect